Three massive battery storage plants—built by Tesla, AES Corp., and Altagas Ltd.—are all officially going live in southern California at about the same time. Any one of these projects would have been the largest battery storage facility ever built. Combined, they amount to 15 percent of the battery storage installed planet-wide last year.

The time is almost here when intermittent renewable energy – from the sun or wind- will be stored in batteries and used to power Everything – all day & night long.

The solar industry added a new solar job every 10 minutes last year, bringing the workforce to a whopping 260,000 U.S. solar jobs. More than a quarter million workers across all 50 states are busy building a better energy future for all of us. Solar is now the 2nd largest employer in the energy sector, employing more Americans than coal or natural gas. You can download the entire report here:

As the solar industry matures, we are beginning to see the emergence of new partnership models. The latest announcement is between National Grid – who owns an electric distribution utility in Massachusetts & upstate New York – and SunRun, one of the leading funders of residential solar installations in the country. As the article notes: “The partnership will also include research on how distributed energy resources can be aggregated to balance and optimize the grid, a service which is currently provided by centralized generators.” Read Here.

Google will be the first major corporation to become 100% powered by renewable energy. Even though Google consumes as much energy as the City of San Francisco, Google has figured out ways to reduce their carbon footprint, eliminate price fluctuations, and save millions of dollars on energy.

“It’s good for the economy, good for business and good for our shareholders.”

Forbes recently did an article on the movie “Before the Flood”, where the UN “Messenger of Peace” – actor Leonardo DiCaprio – documents the realities of Climate Change, and provides insights into the solutions.

One of most fascinating quotes: To transition the world to 100% renewable energy will take 100 Gigafactories like the one that Tesla is building in Nevada.

While it’s no small feat to build a ~15 million square foot Gigafactory, and building 100 is beyond the reach of any one company – it is tremendously hopeful that there IS an achievable path to get humanity through the ever-deepening depths of climate disruption.

This past week New York’s PSA (Public Service Commission) passed the Governor’s mandate for New York to go to 50% renewables by 2030. Massachusetts approved offshore wind for 1,600 MW of power. Last year Vermont approved a Clean Energy Standard of 75 percent by 2032. One of the more controversial sections of New York’s approval is the inclusion of nuclear power. New York, unlike other major state players continues to subsidize nuclear power. This could be challenged legally in the near future. Read more about this in Renewable Energy World.

From East Syracuse to Liverpool’s public library, discussions about clean energy have been popping up all over Onondaga County — and all across New York State. Now, it’s time for action. Read Ron’s article here!

One of the most important drivers of the economy is jobs. And today with many jobs going overseas Americans need to create more and better jobs for today’s workers. In this week’s Poughkeepsie Journal I had the opportunity to write a column regarding this very issue. Clean energy is one of the answers to this lagging jobs market, very simply clean energy creates clean energy jobs. Clean Energy jobs are at a all time high growth rate, outpacing many other sectors.